FinCEN ends BOI reporting requirements for small businesses

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and persons to report beneficial ownership information under the Corporate Transparency Act and said it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons from the BOI database. The final rule does not remove collection requirements for banks.

Details: The agency published FAQs and said the final rule:

• Adopts the exemptions set out in the interim final rule issued in March 2025, making the rollback of beneficial ownership reporting by U.S. companies permanent.

• Exempts U.S. persons who have obtained FinCEN IDs from any obligation to update or correct the information they originally provided to FinCEN to obtain their FinCEN IDs.

• Eliminates the requirement for foreign companies to report U.S. person company applicants.

• Exempts foreign pooled investment vehicles registered in the United States from reporting the BOI of a U.S person in control of the investment vehicle.

• Says foreign entities that are reporting companies will still be required to report beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals.

• Will become effective upon publication in the Federal Register.

More: FinCEN in February announced it was relaxing parts of its 2016 rule that requires covered financial institutions to identify an entity’s beneficial owners each time the entity opens an account.

ICBA View: ICBA has consistently called on FinCEN to amend its customer due diligence rules and withdraw its requirement that banks collect beneficial ownership information, including in a congressional statement last year.